A US$3.17 million , four-year project, funded by the Polonsky Foundation, will make available for the first time materials from the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana and the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford.

The project will digitize books and documents including "ancient Greek manuscripts, 15th century printed books, Hebrew manuscripts and astronomical writings," all in their original languages. "Now that these things are online, they can be accessed from a desktop that would greatly increase the availability of these works and decrease the time and expense involved in having access to them," said Owen M. Smith, associate professor of Philosophy and Classical Studies at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas.